[Good evening. from the studios of KBBF, the first bilingual community radio station in the United States, this is your host, Nora Villanueva, welcoming you to this edition of “Classical Tones,” your program of classical music “with a Latin connection.” Every week at this time we explore the musical culture of Spain and Latin America.]

Sonia Possetti is an Argentinian pianist and composer of tango. Her works have been performed by orchestras in Europe, the United States and Australia as well as Argentina, and her music has appeared in several documentary films. Here’s a piece called “Posdata” (Postscript) performed by her own group, the Sonia Possetti Quintet.

Manuel de Falla originally conceived his work, “Nights in the Gardens of Spain” for piano solo, but he was convinced by the Catalan pianist Ricardo Viñes that the work would be better cast in orchestral form. The result is one of the most openly impressionistic of Falla’s scores. The first movement depicting the Generalife gardens near the Alhambra in Granada frequently makes use of “sul ponticello” strings (in which they play close to the bridge to achieve a kind of magical glassy sound) as well as distant horns. The second section, called “Distant Dance” leads straight to the third section, “In the gardens of the Córdoba Mountains” with its vigorous passages suggestive of a gipsy fiesta that alternate with a slow Andalusian tune. We’ll hear the Brazilian Guiomar Novaes at the piano with the Pro Musica Symphony of Vienna under the baton of Hans Swarowsky.

This is the Classical Tones show where each week we hear classical music “with a Latin connection” from the studios of KBBF in Santa Rosa California. We just heard “Nights in the Gardens of Spain” by Manual de Falla performed by Guiomar Novaes at the piano with the Pro Musica Symphony conducted by Hans Swarowsky.

Next we have something very different. It is no exaggeration to say that the Peruvian singer Yma Súmac possessed one of the most extraordinary voices of the 20th century. She was born high in the Peruvian Andes and claimed descent from Atahualpa last Incan emperor. Her voice spanned more than five octaves and she was able to sing a “double-voiced” trill, which you can hear at the end of this piece. The piece is called “Chuncho, the Forest Creatures” and is inspired by the teeming variety of mysterious sounds of nature. In this 1950 recording, Yma Súmac is accompanied by an orchestra conducted by her then-husband Moisés Vivanco.

Now let’s hear another woman’s voice from the other side of the Atlantic singing music that perhaps was written about the same time as the Inca melodies from the previous piece. The villancico was a song form that was popular in Spain from the late 15th to the 18th centuries. It was organized into an estribillo (refrain) and mudanzas (stanzas) sometimes with an introduction. These five are from the Cancionero de Uppsala, a manuscript of Spanish renaissance music compiled during the reign of the Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand over a period of about 40 years, around the year 1500. We’ll hear a performance by soprano Montserrat Figueras with Hespérion XX directed by Jordi Savall.

In this half of the program we will hear perhaps the most famous violin work in all of history. But first, a little music for guitar. The 1952 film “Jeux interdits” (Forbidden Games) won numerous awards for its depiction of the struggle of two young French children during World War II. Narciso Yepes has transcribed music from the film for guitar, and performs it for us on this recording.

The accomplished Polish violinist Henryk Szeryng (HEN-rik SHEH-ring) had to drop his concert career during World War II to serve the Polish government in exile. In 1941 he attended a mission to Mexico to seek a home for 4000 Polish refugees. He was so deeply moved by the warm reception he received that he decided to become a Mexican citizen. He took up his performing career again in 1954 on the encouragement of pianist Arthur Rubinstein and received many prestigious awards over the years. In 1960 he was appointed the Mexican Cultural Ambassador and later Honorary Director of the Conservatory of Music in Mexico City. Here’s a recording he made in the early 1970s of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink.

You’re listening to the Classical Tones program from the studios of KBBF in Santa Rosa California where we enjoy classical music “with a Latin connection”. We just heard Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D, with violinist Henryk Szeryng and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink.

Next we have a piece that Henryk Szeryng used to play as an encore. It’s called “De Siempre” by the Mexican composer and musician José Sabre Marroquín and is played by Luis Samuel Saloma Alcalá on the violin and Duane Cochran at the piano.

We just heard our last piece of the program called, “De Siempre” by the Mexican composer and musician José Sabre Marroquín and it was played by Luis Samuel Saloma Alcalá on the violin and Duane Cochran at the piano.

[I want to thank you for tuning in to “Classical Tones”, the classical music show from the studios of KBBF. We’re here every week with two hours of the best music and musicians from Spain and Latin America. This is your host Nora Villanueva, hoping to be with you again next week.]